Kaqchikel phonology
In the charts below, each of the Kaqchikel phonemes is represented by the character or set of characters that denote it in the standard orthography developed by the Guatemalan Academy of Mayan Languages (ALMG) and sanctioned by the Guatemalan government. Where different, the corresponding symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet appears in brackets. The dialect used in this example is that of Xenacoj. Vowels Kaqchikel dialects differ somewhat in their vowels. Each dialect has a set of five tense vowels and either one, two, four, or five lax vowels.Patal Majzul et al., 2000, pp. 34ff. The chart below shows all the possible vowels that can occur in dialects of Kaqchikel. Although the dialect of Sololá uses the maximal ten-vowel system with all the vowels except schwa , the dialects of San Juan Sacatepéquez and San Andrés Semetabaj only use the five tense vowels and schwa. There is a variance in the pronunciation of the lax vowels across the dialects. Some dialects lower the given vowel, others center the vowel but do not lower it. The Xenacoj dialect used here both centers and lowers the vowels with a tendency to more strongly lower close vowels and more strongly center back vowels. The pronunciation of the letters o'' and ''u varies between ɤ and o for o'', and ɯ and u for ''u. This roundness ambiguity for the letters o'' and ''u is a trait found in many Mayan languages such as Tzotzil and Mam. The letters may be pronounced as either rounded or unrounded depending on the speakers preference and both are considered correct. *The letter "ü" has a pronunciation between the "ʉ" and "ʊ" sounds. It is farther back and lower than the standard "ʉ" but it is not as low or back as standard "ʊ". *The letter "ö" has similar traits. It is typically pronounced as either a lower "ɵ", though not as low as "ɘ" but may also be pronounced as "ɔ". It may fall anywhere between those sounds, but only lowered "ɵ" and centered "ɔ" are considered to be correct. Consonants Like other Mayan languages, Kaqchikel does not distinguish voiced and voiceless stops and affricates but instead distinguishes plain and glottalized stops and affricates. The plain stops and affricates (technically "pulmonic egressive") are usually voiceless and are aspirated at the ends of words and unaspirated elsewhere. The glottalized stops and affricates are usually ejective in the case of tʼ, kʼ, chʼ, and tzʼ and implosive in the case of bʼ and qʼ.Patal Majzul et al., 2000, pp. 24ff. Allophones and phonological processes Several of the consonants in Kaqchikel have variant forms that occur in certain positions within a word. *The plain stops are aspirated internally before the prefix '-bʼäl' and in word-final position. **Examples: *** viewpoint is realized as *** knapsack is realized as *** dad is realized as *** squirrel is realized as *Before and , is palatalized to become . In the same position, the ejective palatalizes to become . **Examples: *** horse is realized as *** sweet is realized as *** stingy is realized as *** straw is realized as *The voiceless uvular stop has an affricated release in final position. It is realized as the affricate in this position only, and is not contrastive. **Examples: *** bone realized as *** person realized as *The glottal stop plays an important role in Kaqchikel; since words may not begin with a vowel and diphthongs do not exist in the language, this consonant often serves to separate vowels, and is found at the beginning of words that would otherwise begin with a vowel. It can also occur syllable- and word-finally. **Examples: *** your hand is realized as *** yesterday is realized as *The implosive consonants in Kaqchikel are usually voiceless, which is unusual for implosives. **The voiceless bilabial has a tendency to be fricatized to word finally, before and when in consonant clusters. In many dialects /ɸ/ has become the standard pronunciation in all situations while in others it has become /f/. **The voiceless bilabial ejective is an allophone of the bilabial implosive ; there is free variation between the two in word-final position. Elsewhere, only is found. For example, the word "smoke" can be realized as or with no change in meaning; but bone can never be realized as because the implosive occurs word-initially rather than word-finally. **The uvular implosive and its allophone, the voiceless uvular ejective , experience free variation in the same position. For example, tongue can be realized as or ; but can only ever be realized as because the implosive occurs word-initially. *The sonorants are devoiced in word-final position and before another consonant. *The distribution of the phoneme represented by the letter w'' is quite varied across Kaqchikel dialects. It has a total of seven allophones: . The labiovelar approximant is the historical standard pronunciation, and this spelling has been maintained in order to have a single standard for all the various dialects of Kaqchikel. There is too much variation to list here, but these are some generalizations: **At the beginning of a word, can be realized in speech as (only before back vowels ), as (only before front vowels ), or another vowel which is itself followed by a uvular), or as just (before any vowel), depending on the dialect. can also occur internally in the same vowel environments. ***Examples: **** ''bumblebee can be realized as or ****''wïy'' tortilla can be realized as or **** seven can be realized as or or **** yesterday can be realized as or **At the end of a word, the phoneme can be realized in one of four ways: can be found in all environments, and can occur after , depending on the dialect. ***Examples: **** cold can be realized as , or . **** hard can be realized as , , or . Syllable structure Kaqchikel has several constraints on syllable structure. The most common syllable types are CV (consonant-vowel) and CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant). V (vowel only) or VC (vowel-consonant) syllables are not allowed phonetically; a syllable that is conceived of as beginning with a vowel will begin in pronunciation with a glottal stop, although this is not always reflected in standard orthography or in the phonological realization of a word. While two CVC syllables often occur next to each other in the same word, true consonant clusters are relatively uncommon. When these do occur they are normally at word boundaries and consist of either two a sonorant and a stop, or a [[fricative consonant|fricative] and a stop, with the stop always to the inside of its partner. References External links * Category:Language phonologies